These days I use the Canon EOS 5DsR for much of my photography — particularly my landscape, nature, wildlife, and long-exposure night photography. Since people often ask me about the camera, I have decided to offer this write-up. I’ll try to cover some things about the camera that work well for me, acknowledge one or two very small issues, and consider the kinds of photographers for whom it (or its twin, the Canon EOS 5Ds)  might be a great choice. (This isn’t the first time I’ve written about aspects of this camera’s performance, and I have included a list of some of my other posts near the end of this article.)

The 5Ds and 5DsR are both 51 megapixel (MP) full frame DSLR bodies from Canon. They currently provide the highest sensor resolution available from a full frame digital camera and, as such, are targeted to photographers who need particularly high image resolution and who will photograph and post-process in ways that provide this. The 5DsR cancels the effect of the anti-aliasing filter found in the 5Ds — more on that subject below.

It is probably fair to say that the main attraction of these cameras is that high-resolution sensor, a fact that might lead some photographers to ask whether or not they will be able to take advantage of the high-resolution. Compared to earlier 5D-series cameras, the 5Ds/5DsR provide some other improvements, too. The autofocus (AF) system has been updated, noise handling is very good, and the  camera produces high dynamic range files that can be pushed and pulled quite a bit in post. Some updates have been made to the hardware and software interface of the camera, too.

Sensor Resolution

There is no question that these cameras can produce very high-resolution images. Photographers who work carefully and who make very large prints will be pleased. I have made test prints equivalent to 30″ x 45″ prints that look very good and it is possible to go even larger. However, before you jump at the highest resolution full frame camera purely on the basis of higher resolution, you should ask yourself a few serious questions.

• How large do you print? If you don’t print larger than perhaps 18″ x 27″ on a regular basis, the odds are that you will not see any significant difference.
• How careful are you when photographing? When taking advantage of this camera’s resolution in order to make very large prints, other factors affecting image quality become more critical. For example, you probably not only want to shoot from a tripod, but you want to shoot from a very good tripod and with great care. Careful decisions about focus and aperture become more critical. You may sometimes end up thinking a bit differently about shutter speed.
• Do the potential advantages of higher sensor resolution outweigh some of the inevitable downsides in your photography? For example, the maximum burst rate of the camera is lower than that of some less expensive bodies. File sizes are very large, and you’ll more quickly fill up memory cards and hard drives.

If you photograph carefully and regularly make large prints (or need to crop a lot!), the 5Ds/5DsR bodies can provide some useful advantages. Since this is how I work, the difference is significant. If you tend to shoot handheld and/or rarely or never make extremely large prints, you may be better off with a lower resolution camera.

Image Quality

Image quality is the sum of many things. Leaving aside the esthetic component and just thinking about technical issues, factors such as ISO range, dynamic range, noise, color quality, and resolution all play a part. The resolution issue is clearly handled beautifully by these bodies.

A 100% magnification crop from the previous photograph:

(5DsR with 100-400 v.2 with the Canon 1.4x TC, shooting handheld at ISO 800.)

The 5Ds/5DsR have a normal ISO range from 100-6400, and it can be extended to 50-12800. If you keep up with recent camera developments you know that there are cameras from Canon and others that can work at higher ISOs, so if you need to rely on extremely high ISO values in your photography, the 5Ds/5DsR will not likely be your first choice. That said, the camera performs well throughout its ISO range. I frequently shoot it at 1600-3200 when photographing wildlife in low light with long lenses. I have to do some noise reduction in post, but I end up with excellent files.

The dynamic range question is the source of a lot of discussion on photography forums and elsewhere. Sensors produced by Sony currently have the largest available dynamic ranges, and that may affect your choice if having the absolutely largest range is critical to you. That said, the 5Ds/5DsR have excellent dynamic range and the real world photography difference between it and the Sony offerings is more a matter of degree than of night and day. I regularly push shadows extensively in post-processing and the 5DsR files hold up very well. (See my articles on this at the end of this post.)

When it comes to image noise, there are several factors to consider: how much noise there is, how ISO affects the amount of noise, how “clean” the noise is, whether it can be diminished in post, and its visibility in final images. That’s a lot of ground to cover — so I’ll start by simply saying that I find that noise performance is generally very good in these cameras. A bit more information follows, though it will be anecdotal rather than a sequence of test results — I’m describing my real world experience with files from the camera, and you can find objective test results elsewhere if you are interested.

• There is no appreciable noise at ISO 100 or ISO 200, where you’ll likely do a lot of your nature and landscape photography. I can see a tiny bit more noise at 400, but it only requires me to do truly minimal noise reduction. As expected, the visibility of noise continues to increase as ISO is raised. File quality is very good at 800, and a bit of noise reduction takes care of it. I have made landscape photographs at ISO 800 in a few cases. I often shoot at 1600 or 3200 when photographing birds in low light. Here I can certainly seen noise at 100% magnification on the screen, but I can manage it with normal noise reduction processes in post. I don’t have enough experience with higher ISOs to say much about them. In sum, noise isn’t an issue for me with the 5DsR.
• The “quality” of the noise is very good. Basically this means that it is quite random, with no visible banding or similar artifacts. This means that simple noise reduction processes are effective, and it means that leaving noise in the image (if any is visible) will simply result in a slight grainy character that might remind you of film a bit. On this subject, one additional advantage of the  high sensor resolution is that noise “grain” is extremely small. Even if there is noise visible at 100% magnification, it is so small that you won’t see it even in a rather large print.

I frequently read folks posting about the “color quality” of various brands and models of digital camera. In my view, this is sometimes made out to be a bigger issue than it really is. First, the differences are usually far smaller than the writers suggest. Second, by tailoring your post-processing workflow to the files you work with you can get excellent color from any competent camera. So, I have no issues at all with the colors from the camera.

What about anti-aliasing?

The only difference between the 5Ds and the 5DsR is that anti-aliasing filtering is cancelled in the 5DsR. For many years anti-aliasing (or “AA”) filters have been added to digital cameras. The objective is to eliminate spurious image artifacts that can be created when photographing very highly detailed subjects. (The technical description is that image frequencies that exceed the half sampling value of the sensor may produce these spurious alias artifacts.) Anti-aliasing filters (to keep it simple) slightly blur the image to deal with the potential of aliasing artifacts.

Recently more manufacturers have done away with anti-aliasing. They have either cancelled it (as in the case of the 5DsR and the original Nikon D800e) or else they eliminate it entirely. (My Fujifilm x-series camera has no anti-aliasing filter.) The positive effect of this can be somewhat higher image resolution, but at the potential of increased risk of aliasing artifacts such as moire.

In my experience, eliminating anti-aliasing has had no negative effects. I have yet to encounter an image with a problem caused by the lack of the anti-aliasing filter. I’m not saying that it could not happen, but I am saying that it is apparently a very rare thing. (It may be more likely if you are photographing certain kinds of fine, repeating patterns.)

On the other hand, I’m not convinced that images from the AA-filter-free 5DsR are actually substantially sharper than those from the 5Ds. Technically, the 5DsR files must start out a bit sharper, but I doubt if that translates in a meaningful way to final photographs. First, using different sharpening settings in post-processing will make any difference in the original files even smaller. Second, quite frankly, any 51MP image file is going to be very sharp, as long as it contains an in-focus image.

I got the 5DsR since I had previous experience with cameras not using anti-aliasing filters. Eventually, I expect that Canon will simply eliminate the 5Ds with its anti-alias filtering. However, in the meantime you might get a great deal on a 5Ds!

Autofocus System

The AF system of the 5DsR has been improved and is quite good. Among other subjects I photograph birds, often in flight. Using the Canon 100-400mm v.2 lens I can get extremely sharp images of these subjects with this camera.

I won’t go into all the details, but the camera supplies a highly customizable set of AF system settings that allow the camera to be configured for a range of AF challenges.

Ergonomics

For some folks, the “feel” of the camera is very important. This is a rather personal and subjective thing, so I can’t tell you if you will like the way the 5Ds/5DsR bodies feel. I can say that they are well designed and that if you like the other 5D-series bodies you will find the 5Ds/5DsR to be very familiar.

This was brought home to me right away when I started using the new camera. I have used a 5DII for about a half-dozen years, and operation of that camera had become very intuitive for me. I don’t like learning a new interface, and I was concerned that there would be an adjustment period when I upgraded. However, with only a few small exceptions, the 5DsR felt very familiar to me, and I was able to start using it effectively almost immediately. In fact, I never did read a manual, simply looking up a few things that momentarily puzzled me.

Is it perfect?

No camera is perfect, and every camera choice involves weighing a list of pluses and minuses in order to decide what best fits each photographer’s needs and preferences. I find that the 5DsR reflects its lineage as the fourth camera in the 5D-series bodies — in other words, it is a rather refined tool without major problems. I do have a few very minor niggles:

1. When shooting in live view mode the battery life is quite reduced, and I may have to replace the battery after only a couple of hundred photographs. (In regular mode, using the viewfinder, I’ve shot close to 2000 images on a single battery.) The live view battery life is, not surprisingly, rather similar to the battery life on mirrorless cameras with electronic viewfinders.
2. When working from the tripod, I sometimes find the position of the depth of field (DOF) preview button to be a bit awkward, especially when I’m using live view and trying to pan around the image to check focus with the DOF preview button pressed. Most photographers will never run into this, but some will have to relearn things a bit, as I did.

Who  is this camera for?

Lots of people are interested in this camera, and many wonder if it is the right camera for them. I think it is ideal for certain kinds of photographers:

• Photographers who will work carefully to produce images of high technical quality that can be printed very large are well served by this camera. The primary point of this camera is its high sensor resolution, and the point of that is mostly to be able to produce large prints that maintain a suitable level of detail. Given that cameras will much lower sensor resolution can produce beautiful prints at very a large sizes, there is probably a somewhat limited number of photographers who will benefit from the very high resolution. Do you often print at 20″ x 30″ and above? Do you shoot very carefully and use a sophisticated post-processing workflow? You may see a difference based on the higher resolution.
• Photographers who want to get high sensor resolution and shoot diverse subjects may also see advantages. In my case, I sometimes move instantaneously between landscape and wildlife photography, and the ability to do this in a single camera is very useful. The camera’s excellent AF system and the speed/focusing/tracking advantages of DSLRs are compelling for me. (Photographers who rely on very high frame rates for the wildlife and similar photography may be less pleased with the 5Ds/5DsR.)
• Photographers who apply sophisticated post processing workflow will find that the files from the 5Ds/5DsR are very pliable — highlights can be recovered and shadows pushed and more.

Who is this camera not for?

The camera will provide virtually no advantage for photographers who mostly share files electronically via email, social media, or on the web. These forms of image display are far too small for there to be any visible advantage from the high resolution sensor. Photographers who depend on extremely high ISO values may also not be satisfied with the limit of ISO 6400 (and ISO 12800 in extended mode) from this camera.  Those who need very fast burst rates may want cameras that can operate faster than 5fps. Anyone concerned about the practicality of handling large image files may hesitate, too.

In the end…

That’s pretty much it. I’m very happy with the camera, I’m highly satisfied with my purchase, and I expect to use this body for a long time.

NOTES:

I plan to update and edit articles like this one over time. In fact, you can post comments and questions below and I’ll try to respond, either in my own comments or by editing the article.

If this article helped you with a purchase decision, please consider purchasing your Canon EOS 5DSr or Canon EOS 5Ds through these links and others in the article. Your purchase price will be the same, but a small percentage of the sale will be returned from the vendor in order to help support that website. Thanks!

Other Articles at the Website

• Reader Question: 5Ds/5DsR Print Quality
• The Canon EOS 5Ds R — Autofocus Torture Test
• The Canon EOS 5Ds R — Dynamic Range Examples
• The Canon EOS 5Ds R — A Resolution Example
• Canon 5DS R: A Printing Test
• Looking at Canon 5Ds RAW Files: Noise and Dynamic Range.
• Canon EOS 5Ds and 5Ds R Release Near?
• Canon 5Ds and 5Ds R Pre-orders Available

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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